A CHICAGO activist and restaurateur was sentenced to seven months in prison Thursday for violating federal law by lobbying on behalf of President Robert Mugabe and his administration which is under U.S. economic sanctions.
The activist whose colourful history in Chicago includes leadership of a religious sect in the 1980s, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of failing to register as an agent for a foreign government.
Ben Israel’s attorneys had asked U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo for probation, but the judge said the seriousness of the offense warranted some prison time. Federal guidelines had called for up to 16 months behind bars.
He admitted in his guilty plea to trying to persuade U.S. government officials - including an Illinois state senator and two U.S. representatives from Chicago - to push for the lifting of the sanctions imposed in 2003 on Mugabe and other top Zimbabwean government officials.
Ben Israel and co-defendant C. Gregory Turner, also of Chicago, had reached a consulting deal with the Zimbabwean officials to be paid $3.4 million for their efforts, according to Ben Israel's plea agreement. Turner, 71, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The charges do not name any of the politicians, but details included in the charges made it clear that among the lawmakers the two dealt with were then-state Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, as well as U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Bobby Rush, both Chicago Democrats. None of the public officials was accused of wrongdoing.
Ben Israel and Turner were successful in arranging for the state senator and several other lawmakers to meet with Mugabe and other top Zimbabwean officials during several trips there in 2008 and 2009, according to the charges.
The two U.S. representatives participated in numerous meetings about the lobbying effort and also sponsored a failed 2010 House resolution to end the Zimbabwean sanctions.
As an initial payment on the contract, BenIsraelin December 2008 received $90,000 in cash from a Zimbabwean official's bank account in Botswana, according to his plea agreement.
It was also alleged Ben Israel or Turner received any other payments, and their lobbying efforts ultimately failed as Obama continued the sanctions first imposed under the previous administration.
The US imposed sanctions against Harare accusing Mugabe’s regime of human rights abuses and electoral fraud, allegations denied by the Zimbabwean strongman.